Is it possible to password/restrict access to an interactive PDF?

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
April 14, 2019
2 replies
223 views

We are creating (or trying to) an interactive PDF document, that needs to be shared with a limit number of readers. Is it possible to restrict access, maybe by adding a password, so that only a select number of people can read it?

Thanks,

Nigel

This topic has been closed for replies.

nigeld27Author

Participant

@Derek Cross @Steve Werner and BobLevine, that is very disappointing but thank you for your quick responses.

We are a business consulting firm (i.e. nothing to do with design) and I really want to add some flair to our reports (rather than create static PDFs). If you have any advice for how we can create secure, interactive documents, please let me know.

Otherwise thanks again.

BobLevine

Community Expert

What I would advise is a secure area of a website. Like anything else, someone determined enough will figure a way in, but that would be criminal conduct.

Anyone can open a PDF in a third party reader application and beat the security.

Derek Cross

Community Expert

You can, but it’s easly cracked.

nigeld27Author

Participant

Do you mean the password would be easily cracked? How easily? Would you average internet user be able to do it?

Is there no way at all to restrict readership?

Steve Werner

Community Expert

If you were do a Google search, you would probably find websites that would offer software for "cracking" a PDF that you could download and use. Is that easy enough for you?

There is no guaranteed way that you could restrict readership of a PDF file that you've posted in a public place at the PDF level. For that you'd probably need to create a website and use appropriate web security tools (which I'm not familiar with).

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded